The United States government has also been dropping cluster bombs onto
Afghanistan. A cluster bomb is a canister which is dropped from the
air. It typically scatters 200-600 small bombs called bomblets over an
area the size of a football pitch. These are about the size of a
Coca-Cola can. Those that do not explode on impact with the ground
remain as landmines, waiting to explode. However, they are much more
dangerous than conventional landmines because they explode much more easily. The
exact proportion of bombs that wait to explode is disputed but it
seems to be accepted that it lies between 5-30%. The lowest figure
quoted is 5% which is the manufacturer's own estimate. See for example
a report on Kosovo
'Cluster bombs: the hidden toll', Richard Norton-Taylor
Guardian 8 August 2000.
See also Clarion's dossier
Are "cluster bombs" aerially-deployed landmines?

"We were picking our way through the bombed-out ruins of Khanabad
when we heard the explosion. When we got there, struggling through
the collapsed remains of houses, an old man sat in his blood
blinking and shaking his head in bewilderment. Beside him, a
15-year-old boy lay bleeding and unconscious".

Whatever the proportion that may or may not explode on impact, Justin
Huggler reports the fields and roadside around Khanabad as being
"littered" with unexploded cluster bomblets. The article also reports
other American bombing atrocities against Afghan civilians in
Khanabad.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world with an
infant mortality rate of 165 per 1,000 births and a life expectancy of
46 years. The war in Afghanistan is creating "the most serious,
complex emergency in the world ever," according to United Nations
official Stephanie Bunker (see. Heather Cottin)

"As many as 100,000 more children will die in Afghanistan this winter
unless food reaches them in sufficient quantities in the next six
weeks," Eric Laroche, UNICEF spokesperson, said in an interview with
the Times of India on 29 October 2001

But the heavy bombing of Afghan cities and supply routes by the United
States, as well as the bombing of food supplies like the Red Cross
warehouse in Kabul, has choked off relief efforts.

2. Regardless of people in Afghanistan, what about yourself and the people you know?

On a personal and practical level for us living in the western world,
the bombing of innocent people will provoke a hatred of the west which
will inevitably result in more terrorist attacks on us.

Many of the people of Afghanistan are unaware of the tragic events
that occurred on the 11th September 2001, some of these do not even
know who the Taleban are or who Osama bin Laden is, but they do know
that they are being bombed by the United States and its allies. If you
were living in the poverty of Afghanistan, your country is being
bombed for reasons that have nothing to do with you, this will create
hatred and a desire for revenge. This in turn may result in the
creation of further terrorist and more terrorist attacks. So even if
you think that bombing a country somewhere far away doesn't affect
you, it does! Even if they capture or kill bin Laden, how many more
terrorists will you let them create?

Given the current proliferation of nuclear materials, this could mean
a nuclear bomb exploding in London. Even if terrorists do not obtain a
nuclear bomb, the deliberate distribution of radioactive materials
could have horrific consequences.

3. Legal grounds

Prof. Michael Mandel (of Law) Osgoode Hall Law school, Toronto wrote
in the Globe and Mail 9 October 2001

"A well-kept secret about the US-UK attack on the Afghanistan is
that it is clearly illegal. It violates international law and the
express words of the United Nations Charter. Despite repeated
reference to the right of self-defence under Article 51, the
charter simply does not apply here, Article 51 gives a state the
right to repel an attack that is ongoing or imminent as a temporary
measure until the UN security council can take steps necessary for
international peace and security. The security council regulations
do not allow the US or UK to attack once the attack on the World
Trade Centre is over".

This page was written in 2002. It was updated on 10 October 2006 to
reflect a less credulous attitude to so-called "cluster bombs".